Cloth Diapering Day 1

Our Stash! (Sorry for the phone picture)

We got our cloth diapers on Thursday!  I was so excited, it was like Christmas Day opening our box from diapers.com.  In fact, I waited all day for the UPS delivery guy to arrive just waiting for our diapers.  (He naturally arrived just as I had gotten Eliza to fall asleep, so I opened the door when I heard the truck pull up in hopes that I could head him off before he rang the doorbell and prevent Scooter from barking, but naturally Scooter barked anyway, Eliza woke up, and I might have cursed at Scooter, maybe.)  First step in cloth diapering, preparing the diapers.  I had read stories of having to wash diapers on hot FIVE TIMES without detergent to prepare them, but luckily I found this website that explained how to prepare diapers, and also that if I didn't get cotton diapers I would only have to wash them once to get the shipping residue off, just like I do with any of Eliza's clothes.  Shawn was almost as excited as I was.  The diapers got washed and the covers air dried while the inserts went into the dryer, and they all got stuffed and folded Thursday night so I could start cloth diapering Friday morning.

I have to say, cloth diapers are CUTE! They look so cute on a little baby bum, but at the same time, they do look pretty huge on our little tiny baby.  They fit the way they are supposed to, but since I got one-size diapers that fold and snap smaller and will grow with our baby, they look pretty bulky on our baby girl.  Now, why are disposable diapers so ugly looking?  What newborn cares if they have Elmo or Winnie the Pooh on their diaper?  Why not make diapers that appeal to the adults who change them?  There are no characters on our cloth diapers, they're all just solid colors (but I did want to try a different diaper brand simply because they had this cute pattern with flowers, but they were too expensive to really justify it to Shawn).

When the diapers came I was most excited about the Flip diapers. I liked the idea of an outer cover and an insert, and I can pull out the insert and reuse the outer cover. (We got a deal with two outer covers and six inserts.)  So, they were the first diapers I put on Eliza, and they really are easy.  Of course her first diaper was messy, not just wet, and the mess got onto the outer cover, so I tossed the entire thing in the diaper pail.  (Yep, the diaper pail works for cloth diapers too!) Next I tried the Bum Genius Freetime diaper.  These diapers have the inserts semi-attached, so you don't pull them out when you change the diaper, but throw the entire thing in the pail.  I was least excited about trying these diapers out, but after a couple of days, they are definitely the easiest to change, the most like a disposable diaper.  The third type of diaper I tried was the Bum Genius 4.0. This was what I had read the most about, and what really sold me on trying cloth diapers.  Like the Flip diapers they have a separate insert, but unlike the flip they inserts are put into a pocket in the outer cover, so you pull the insert out of the pocket to wash them, and you still have to wash the outer cover every time too.

Overall, after two days of using cloth (Friday and Sunday, since I have a limited supply I washed them on Saturday and used disposables) I have to say that the Bum Genius Freetime are my favorite.  I like the ease of throwing the whole thing into the diaper pail and laundry.  Pulling a wet insert out of the Flip Diaper or the Bum Geinus 4.0 isn't that bad, but pulling a messy diaper insert out is still a little gross.  And the poop does have a habit of getting around the insert on the Flip Diaper and getting onto the cover, so if it's a poopy diaper I definitely have to change both the cover and the insert.  But if it's just wet, I still like the idea of not having to put the whole diaper in the wash, and just changing the insert. The biggest thing I like better about disposables is the convenient yellow line printed on the diaper that turns blue when it's wet or messy.  With cloth diapers you have to touch them to tell if they're wet.

I'll give them another few days to try out, but if I was ordering my supply tomorrow I'd go with the Freetime diapers.  As it is, I want to try them out longer, see how they do with more messes, if I get blowouts or other diaper problems.

Do any readers have experience with cloth diapers?  Do you have a kind you love?  We're just working on the diapers right now, but I'm starting to research cloth wipes.  And I want a couple of wetbags too (waterproof cloth bags you throw your diapers in but can also throw in the laundry) but Shawn is pretty determined we'll just use plastic bags.  And since we're not doing this to be environmentally friendly, but just economical, it seems the most economical way to go about it.  Advice?